'The Sims 3: Ambitions' (PC)

Also available on: MacDeveloper: EA CanadaPublisher: EAGenre: Life Simulation

Expansion packs have played an integral part in The Sims franchise throughout its history. Previous editions of EA's popular life simulation have received countless add-ons to prevent the formula from going stale, and its latest iteration is proving to be no exception. While The Sims 3 might never be privy to as much additional content as its forebear, the emphasis has been on quality over quantity so far. After adding innovative gameplay features to the mix with World Adventures, EA is offering players the chance to further their virtual careers with the Ambitions pack.

Taking a similar approach to Open For Business for The Sims 2, Ambitions adds a wealth of options to the career aspect of the game. In addition to the standard jobs present in the core title, the expansion brings in a host of new professions, allowing the player to take part in a full working day. You can solve crimes as a private investigator, catch wayward spirits as a ghost hunter, tackle blazes as a firefighter, or satisfy your creative urges as a stylist or an architect. Furthermore, the previously-available doctor job has been padded out into a fully-playable role.

Whereas in-game careers previously involved your Sim disappearing for the day and collecting their wages afterwards, the inclusion of the new professions makes for a much more satisfying daily routine. In turn, this adds another dimension to your Sims' overall story as the character traits you have selected for them come into play on the job. There's a good measure of variety to each profession. In addition to your daily duties, there are added responsibilities. For instance, firefighting requires you to hone your skills at the station and upgrade your engine before tacking infernos and natural disasters, while architecture has you custom-building structures for your neighbours.

Like any Sims expansion, the package introduces some minor tweaks such as extra traits, lifetime wishes and hobbies to allow for more variation during character customisation. Of these bonus options, hobbies have the biggest impact, introducing sculpting, tattooing and inventing. Once mastered, these abilities maximise your earning potential and give rise to social opportunities. For example, inventors can create contraptions to improve other Sims' lives and sculptors can make a bit on the side through their craft and eventually take it up a notch by registering as self-employed.

Abilities aren't the only added bonus. There are a couple of new venues to provide a measure of variation, such as the laundromat, the fire station, the salon and a junkyard where inventors can salvage raw materials. All of these are housed in the new neighbourhood of TwinBrook, which is loaded with the kind of quirky charm fans have come to thrive on.

Like World Adventures before it, Ambitions is a bold attempt at building on tried and tested mechanics, and for the most part it pays off. However, it also suffers from the same drawbacks of its predecessor. Whereas the vacations in Adventures were engrossing enough to make it near impossible to tend to more than one Sim, the new features in this package have much the same effect. Those who have raised a family in the game will likely feel as though they cannot take full advantage of the bonus content due to the time-consuming nature of the new professions.

A more significant issue is the expansion's failure to rectify existing bugs and glitches. Saved data errors have carried over from the core game and there has been no discernible effort to iron out the scenery pop-up that rears its head when the camera pans across the map. The launch of an update such as this is the perfect time to address any technical problems, and EA's failure to do so is a missed opportunity.

Overall, Ambitions is a worthwhile addition to the fold as its serves to enrich the Sims 3 experience, creating engaging gameplay where there was none. It's by no means as innovative or game-changing as World Adventures (though it does suffer from many of the same drawbacks) but there's no reason to suggest that series fanatics shouldn't rush out and buy it. To put it Sim-ply, this is one of the better expansions the series has seen in recent years.